Riahderymnmaddog wrote on Oct 15, 2024, 14:37:
Yeah, you can turn in a perfectly written 5000 word essay a week late and get an F, or turn in a poorly written one on time and get a B or C. We do the same thing in construction... Getting it done on time, and then fixing some problems is more valuable then getting it perfect but late. Late but perfect fucks with revenue, and without that revenue you may as well go out of business.

The difference is that construction isn't graded on a scale. You either make what the client wants and is reasonably pleased with, or your company won't be contracted for anything in the future.

And putting construction together with "getting it done on time" has to be one of the wildest and most unrealistic combos ever LOL

This comment was edited on Oct 17, 2024, 19:41.

Kastagir wrote on Oct 15, 2024, 23:40:
The only way that'll change is if you STOP BUYING IT.

Starfield might be the point enough people have stopped buying their crap. Its sales are not that good and the addon seems to be even worse sales-wise. But sadly no hard data, only rumors and speculation based on external observation.

Modded or not, if you keep buying Bethesda games they'll keep selling them with the same problems. It's simply too expensive for them at this point to adopt or license a new game engine and people keep purchasing their 25-year-old garbage. The only way that'll change is if you STOP BUYING IT.

JTW's point is important. They released Skyrim with the same bugs and technical faults as Oblivion. They released every following version of Skyrim with the same problems as the previous version. They released Fallout 4 with the same bugs. They released Fallout 76 with the same faults. Bear in mind that modders had already solved a huge number of these issues with mods and community updates. They would have to continue to release fixes for every ensuing release because Bethesda couldn't be bothered to do it themselves. Repeatedly. We're supposed to believe that paid professional developers couldn't fix what unpaid modders could? And they couldn't work those fixes into ensuing releases that were shipped with the same errors? Fuck off Bethesda. Either it was a staggering amount of ego, or a staggering amount of incompetence, but either way, FUCK OFF.

There's a very good reason I will never play an unmodded Bethesda game. No, whether he is still with Bethesda or long separated, this guy is so full of shit that I am surprised it wasn't seen pouring out of his mouth as he said this.

Starfield should have had a new engine. Guess Bethesda simply wasn't up to it.

Which is true.

Except when you release games with the exact same bugs that have plagued every game in the series because the engine has never been fixed.

Or when the bugs aren't bugs - they're limitations due to the age of the core of the engine.

And yeah - at some point you have to release. Look at Cyberpunk 2077, or No Man's Sky. And look at what they did afterward (note: it wasn't making expensive DLC and ignoring the core problems with the base game.)

I can't say that this surprises me.

It sounds like the big problems with Starfield weren't the bugs.

Prez wrote on Oct 15, 2024, 12:26:
Has Bethesda ever said anything not ridiculous in an interview or press release?

Bruce Nesmith left Bethesda in 2021. He is not representing Bethesda (of today) in this article. He has made plenty of critical observations of Bethesda's development strategies since leaving the company.

There's no way to get all bugs fixed. At least, fix all the high priority bugs!! Also, stop rushing to release!

Yeah, you can turn in a perfectly written 5000 word essay a week late and get an F, or turn in a poorly written one on time and get a B or C. We do the same thing in construction... Getting it done on time, and then fixing some problems is more valuable then getting it perfect but late. Late but perfect fucks with revenue, and without that revenue you may as well go out of business.

More recently (Starfield) some might say they're even lacking fun.

To me any jank is mostly unimportant if the game is fun enough.

The problem is Bethesda stopped trying for the fun part, one year on not even considering fixing that lack.

700 bugs? More like 7,000. The issue is that they go too big and just cut development off too abruptly. If Skyrim had a few more years to polish itself, it would have been better for sure but I doubt it would have resulted in a lot more sales. Having an entire community fixing their shit for free is also insanely wonderful for them.

Has Bethesda ever said anything not ridiculous in an interview or press release?